This invention relates to edger and trimmer attachments to be added to a power lawn mower, and more particularly relates to attachments for edging and trimming grass wherein the attachment can be mounted on a wide variety of lawn mowers and other such vehicles, and can be selectively rendered operable or inoperable during use of the vehicle.
The ordinary lawn mower is unable to pass close enough to a raised obstruction to trim the grass all the way up to it, and in addition is not equipped for edging along a sidewalk or garden periphery. Separate machines are sold for accomplishing such edging and trimming purposes, and they usually have a cutting head supported on the end of a long handle that can be oriented horizontally for trimming, or vertically for edging during use. Numerous attempts have been made to provide an attachment for power mowers to accomplish edging and trimming functions, but they have undesirable features which the present disclosure seeks to improve.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,372 to Remer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,099 to Owens, U.S. Pat. No. 3,531,922 to Hansen, and U.s. Pat. No. 3,236,037 to Porterfield are among a group of patents which show attachments driven from pulleys or friction drives located within the skirt of a rotary mower, which location makes their drives subject to clogging and slippage caused by the accumulation of cuttings. Some other patents avoid this problem by taking drive from above the cutting skirt area, as shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,242,855 to Beaver, U.S. Pat. No 3,871,160 to Hooper, U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,208 to Borunda, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,407,579 to Decker.
Others of the disclosures show various mountings for the cutting head to the mower frame, but none in which the head is adjustable continuously as to height above the ground, azimuth angle with respect to the frame, and inclination of the plane of the rotating disc and flail member. For example in Remer U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,372 there are several different angular orientations possible, but only to the extent that there are milled slots in the mounting block 74. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,191,368 to Hidalgo, U.S. Pat. No. 3,193,996 to Wellborn, U.S. Pat. No 3,693,334 to Lowery, 3,531,922 to Hansen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,037 to Porterfield, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,208 to Borunda there is some adjustment in at least one direction, but the mountings are complicated and usually quite limited in their adjustability.
Moreover, none of the known prior art shows any structure which will allow interchangeable cable drive or electric motor drive for the cutting head, so arranged as to facilitate quick and easy drive-type changeability to make the attachement useable on different types of push and riding mowers.